Tech Tuesdays
February 19th, 2019

Every day, we give massive amounts of information to tech companies on every facet of our lives: how we work, eat, sleep, shop and socialize. Companies, in turn, then make massive profits off of this information through selling products, services and, especially, advertising. 

So, Should Consumers Get A Cut of Those Profits?

—In his first State of the State speech, California governor Gavin Newsom spoke to the idea of a “data dividend” for consumers. “California’s consumers should … be able to share in the wealth that is created from their data. And so I’ve asked my team to develop a proposal for a new data dividend for Californians, because we recognize that your data has value and it belongs to you,” said Newsom.

—The idea is something of a digital version of what the state of Alaska currently does, giving residents a payment each year, ranging from hundreds of dollars to a couple thousand dollars per person, using state funds collected from oil companies.

The Must-Have Conversation

This recent suggestion is the latest effort by California (home to the world’s two largest internet advertising companies: Alphabet [Google] and Facebook) to protect individual privacy and data security rights. Last year, California also passed the country’s most comprehensive data privacy bill. Could tying a price tag to individual information be a more effective means of empowering consumers against the growing reach and influence of these tech giants?

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